Westminster Jazz Festival hosts passionate jazz musician

Jazz and Art Festival attendees were in for a treat when headliner Nelson Rangell hit the stage Saturday night at the Hidden Lake High School athletic field in Westminster. The experienced musician shared his passion for jazz music with a large crowd of young and old, swaying to the tunes of Rangell’s saxophone and flute.

“I love jazz music and I think it’s great to have such amazing artists at a local festival,” said Westminster resident Laurie Cooper. “I really enjoyed Nelson’s performance. He’s pretty talented.”

Rangell grew up in a musical family and at the young age of 15 he started his own musical journey. Since then he’s dedicated his life to sharing his love for music with the world. Over the years he’s been busy touring the country. He has released 15 albums.

To him, jazz music is a unique style and interactive form of music. Rangell said it’s music that is improvised, with not one performance ever truly mirroring another one. When he’s on stage, he says he strives to make a connection with the audience, one where his music enriches his listeners.

“When jazz is at its best, something sort of heightens everybody involved,” he said. “It entertains. It sure lets you know you’re alive. I feel very alive when I perform, that’s for sure.”

Rangell considers himself one of the lucky people, someone who found something he loves to do and has been able to make career out it. He realizes not everyone in the world has this opportunity so he’s taken full advantage of this gift.

“It’s not a given in life that everybody will find what they are meant to do in life that gives them pleasure. For me, I was lucky enough to end up being one of those people,” he said. “Music is one of my life’s biggest blessings.”

Rangell’s friendship with Eric Trujillo, organizer of the Jazz Festival in Westminster, brought the Littleton resident to this year’s festival. He said after knowing Trujillo for many years, it was nice to participate in something his friend was organizing. Rangell’s also impressed with the fact that a local festival was actually free to the public.

“I think it’s really important for a community to have the opportunity to come out and enjoy themselves and take in a creative day,” he said. “It’s really cool it was free, and I hope people realized how cool that really was.”